GORDO BANKS PANGAS
April 28th, 2024
We saw ideal conditions this week. Mostly clear sunny skies with lows of about 65 and highs near 85 degrees. We had slight ocean swells with minimal wind that allowed us to fish the tuna grounds comfortably. Our marina had a busy week due to the hot tuna bite.
Our main highlight was the yellowfin tuna bite at Iman bank with live and dead sardines. This week, we noticed that the tuna bite would be best earlier in the morning. Most captains reported that they would only come up for an hour or two. This bite was best Monday through Friday as we saw a slower bite throughout the weekend. Monday was our best day as most of the boats came back early with over 7 tuna per boat. Most of these tuna were averaging around 20-30 pounds, though we had some big ones in the mix. The biggest tuna this week came in at 122 pounds caught on a dead sardine. We had many tuna between 70 and 100 pounds as well. We are mostly using 40 and 50# test as these tuna can be finicky. There is still a good chance of landing one of the big ones on this gear, though you will need to be extra careful, and the battle might be a long one. According to our clients, the battle on the 122 pounder was close to 2 hours. Many locals tried the afternoon, though they reported almost no bites or surface activity.
Within the same grounds of Iman, we have also caught a handful of dorado and wahoo. Most of these dorado are on the smaller side. We did see some bigger wahoo this week, the biggest ones weighing close 54 and 40 pounds. All of this action came on live sardines whiles fishing for tuna.
We did not focus much on the bottom or inshore this week. The boats that fished some rock structures in Cardon did catch yellow snapper, grouper, and a few amberjacks. Closer to shore, continue to see Spanish mackerel (sierra), Jack crevalle, and roosterfish. On Friday, one of our boats focused on Roosterfish for a couple of hours and reported releasing 7 nice ones.
We are now seeing the last few humpback whales in our area as they migrate up north for the summer.
Good Fishing, Brian
